What I learned from reading about Gideon

The life of Gideon (Judges 6:11-8:35, Hebrews 11:32)

• God calls Gideon a mighty man of valor
• Gideon complains that God isn’t acting in the same way for Israel now, as he has done in the past
• Gideon gives God excuses
• God promises to be with Him
• Gideon demands a sign
• Gideon gets a sign
• God tells Gideon to destroy the altar of Baal in his fathers house
• Gideon does it, but does so at night because he is afraid of what family and others will think
• Gideon demands another sign from God (the famous fleece)
• God gives the sign
• Gideon demands God do it again
• God gives the sign again
• God wants to prove the victory in Battle is His, so he pares down the army of Israel from 32,000 to 300. (see below - Great Story 1)
• The 300 men defeat the army of Midian
• God gives Gideon further victories over Succoth, Penuel. (Great Story 2) 
• Isreal wants Gideon to rule over them, but he says that only the LORD will rule over Israel
• Shortly after that he asks for some gold from the people of Israel, and he uses it to make an ephod. It says that all Israel whored after it, and it became a snare to Gideon. 
• Gideon dies
• Israel returns to worshiping Baal.

The story of Gideon ends in Hebrews 11 when he is listed with the other great heroes of the faith. It is interesting to note that Gideon was not perfect. He demanded sign after sign from God. At the end of his life he creates this golden ephod which becomes an idol for God's people. He also did many great things. And in the end he is listed as a man of faith.

Two quick observations:

1. God called Gideon a mighty man of valor before Gideon had done anything. God sees in us our potential, and uses us before we are ready. He then causes us to succeed despite our shortcomings. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.
2. Even the heroes in the Bible are not perfect. God uses imperfect people to accomplish his goal of declaring his glory among the nations. The only perfect one is Jesus, and we should see him high above anyone else. Jesus is a greater Gideon, who perfectly leads his people into battle, and is our perfect Judge!

Great Story 1

In one of the great scenes of the Bible, God chooses the men for battle by how they drink water from the water. The ones who lap up the water like a dog are now the army, and the ones who kneel down to drink go home

Great Story 2

Gideon and his guys are tired and hungry from battle and ask for bread. The officials in Succoth wouldn’t give Gideon bread, so Gideon says that when he gets back from his current battle he will, “flail their flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with briers”. After all was said and done, he came back to Succoth and did it! He is a man of his word!

Looking back to redemption

Today in my time in the Word I was reading Judges 6. In verses 7-9 it reads:

When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. (Judges 6:7-9 ESV)

What came to my mind when reading this, was that when Israel cried out to God, God reminds them of when he redeemed them from Egypt. He points them back to the time that he saved them so that they would remember God's saving power.

Now, in the post-incarnation era, when we are in trouble and need to cry out to God, we should always look back to God's saving power at the cross. It was at the cross that Jesus redeemed us from our sin.

God has always been about saving his people. For Israel, it was from Egypt, and they were to look back and take solace in that saving power. For us, we are to look back to Jesus, and his saving power.

The whole Bible is about Jesus...

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27 ESV)

Suffering for the Glory of God

I just listened to Matt Chandler and CJ Mahaney's Message from Together for the Gospel 2010 and it really hit me. Many specific things stood out to me, but here are a few that stood out:

• God is good no matter what He brings our way. He can do us no wrong.
  
• The greatest thing we can give someone in their suffering is a greater understanding of the gospel. If they know that, they know that even if God seems to be abandoning them in their pain, he did not abandon them at the Cross.
  
• I want to leave a legacy for my family to trust Jesus, so that even if something happened to me, they would not be taken by the lies of the enemy, but that they would trust God's goodness and heart, even if they cannot understand the movements of his hands.
  

God help me to always preach the gospel, and to suffer well, if you call me to that high calling.

I recommend watching the video of this message; it is well worth your 50 minutes.